News Around the League Part III: Stretch run time

[njdevil26]

Shinkaruk was traded to Calgary for Markus Grandlund at the deadline this year.

They still do have Horvat and they also have Sven Bartschi, who everyone was enraged that Lou did not trade for last deadline.

Not that I want Bartschi unless he's cheap. He's one of the more overrated pet projects here after Alex Semin and that Cakes guy from the Czech that we missed out on. I can't even remember that Cake dude's name anymore.

Are you saying we could get him?

 

[Bleedred]

Are you saying we could get him?

No! Not again! Just don't even think about it! Keep walking! It's a trap!

I'm pretty sure you're just joking though.

And the overhyped Czech prospect is Jiri Sekac. He's probably had more apartments to live in the last 3 years than goals scored, good riddance.

29 points in 108 NHL games, 10 career goals and 4 NHL teams played for in 2 years. 2 more career goals scored than Sergey Kalinin in 31 more games played. What a ****ing bust. Wasn't there like a 5 team bidding war for this bum? And he also played in 109 KHL games and scored 13 goals and 39 points there. A bidding war for a player that's not that much better than Sergey Kalinin....

 

[njdevil26]

No! Not again! Just don't even think about it! Keep walking! It's a trap!

I'm pretty sure you're just joking though.

And the overhyped Czech prospect is Jiri Sekac. He's probably had more apartments to live in the last 3 years than goals scored, good riddance.

29 points in 108 NHL games, 10 career goals and 4 NHL teams played for in 2 years. 2 more career goals scored than Sergey Kalinin in 31 more games played. What a ****ing bust. Wasn't there like a 5 team bidding war for this bum? And he also played in 109 KHL games and scored 13 goals and 39 points there. A bidding war for a player that's not that much better than Sergey Kalinin....

HAha of course I am kidding.

Sekac was a huge bust and I remember how much we wanted him when his name was first brought up.

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

@NJDevs26

Benning gave up quality assets so who knows if there was a bidding war for Gud or if Gud is worth it. I do believe fully that Gud is worth the price to Van specifically because McCann was expendable, they still have 5th overall, and they got a solid, physical RHD for the second pair.

 

[Burner Account]

Erik Badbrandson

 

[Cheddabombs]

I just find it funny that Benning, who has an eye for prospects, always throws in picks to any deal he makes. Like one of his best assets should be at the draft table but why is he so headstrong to trade away so many picks?

 

[Brodeur]

29 points in 108 NHL games, 10 career goals and 4 NHL teams played for in 2 years. 2 more career goals scored than Sergey Kalinin in 31 more games played. What a ****ing bust. Wasn't there like a 5 team bidding war for this bum?

That's the beauty of ELCs, the CBA restricts how much you can offer and for how long. So if he stinks, you aren't setting your franchise back. Sekac signed a modest two year ELC. He only had a bonus package worth 425K max. Whereas Panarin got a near max deal with 2.575 mil in potential bonuses. Heck, Pittsburgh gave Plotnikov a deal with 2.85 mil in potential bonuses.

Winning teams have done a good job at mining those undrafted guys from Europe/NCAA who can contribute. There just seems to be more competition for those sort of guys nowadays, or at least with Twitter there's more coverage so we get our hopes up for guys more than in the past.

 

[AfroThunder396]

DeBoer is probably going to win the Cup in his first season after leaving NJ and I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

As a side note, I love to see Gorton panicking and trying to deal everyone. Mediocrity in organization form.

Toronto and New York have always struck me as similar.

 

[MadDevil]

DeBoer is probably going to win the Cup in his first season after leaving NJ and I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

It doesn't bother me at all, but then I don't have the lingering hatred for him that some people do. I think for the most part he did a pretty good job with this team after losing Parise, Kovy, and Clarkson. We should have made the playoffs on 2013-14 if we weren't historically bad at the shootout. But then it finally all caught up to us in 2014-15 and it just wasn't working anymore. It happens. I don't have any hard feelings towards the guy.

 

[Emperoreddy]

DeBoer is probably going to win the Cup in his first season after leaving NJ and I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

Pete never had a team as good as this Sharks team outside of 2012. When in the right situation Pete can win. He just isn't the guy you want during a rebuild.

 

[Bleedred]

I think Pete's current team is better than our 2012 team, I've said it before.

They don't have a forward that was quite as good as the former #17 that year, but they have about 3 forwards better than anything else we had on forward that year. Pavelski is Probably even better than Parise at that point, and he's sure as hell having a better playoffs than anything we ever got out of him. Couture and Thornton are both better than 2012 Zajac and Elias. Elias in 2012 was better than the current Marleau, though Elias had that injury in the playoffs.

We never had a guy in the back end like Brent Burns. He's like immensely better than Zidlicky. Aside from Vlasic, Greene is better than most of the Sharks current blue line. But I'd say a good majority of the current Sharks blue line is better than the rest of ours from that year.

In goal it was close to a wash. Marty wasn't great anymore, but at least looked like he was for most of those playoffs. Jones hasn't stood on his head, but this is the best goaltending the Sharks have gotten in the playoffs in years. Niemi stunk in the playoffs, outside of 2013. Nabokov probably had more stinkers than good years in the playoffs.

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Oh yeah, Sharks are definitely better than the 2012 Devils.

Better defense for sure, better goaltending as well. Forward group is probably comparable.

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

San Jose and Pittsburgh should be a lesson to people who write teams off based on early or mid-season performance.

Sharks stumbled hard out of the gate. Pittsburgh struggled for the first half of the season and many pronounced them dead in the water after Malkin's injury.

 

[Brodeur]

San Jose and Pittsburgh should be a lesson to people who write teams off based on early or mid-season performance.

Sharks stumbled hard out of the gate. Pittsburgh struggled for the first half of the season and many pronounced them dead in the water after Malkin's injury.

There was a great thread early in the season. Poster said that the Sharks were dumb for giving away what he said was a top 3 pick for Martin Jones. While factually correct in that the Sharks had the third least amount of points in the league, they had a weird scheduling quirk and had 3 or 4 games in hand.

Although I am kicking myself. I was in Vegas for the Awards show last June and the Sharks were getting 55-1 for the Cup. I put a $50 bet for my friend. I should have just piggybacked it and put a $100 down. But instead I made a $20 throwaway bet on the Devils.

If the Sharks win, I can be happy for my friend for winning $2750. If the Sharks lose, I can relentlessly make fun of my friend almost winning $2750.

 

[Emperoreddy]

San Jose and Pittsburgh should be a lesson to people who write teams off based on early or mid-season performance.

Sharks stumbled hard out of the gate. Pittsburgh struggled for the first half of the season and many pronounced them dead in the water after Malkin's injury.

So Valequette? Because he does this all the damn time on Hockey Night Live.

 

[NJDevs26]

I think people wrote off the Sharks cause of missing the playoffs last year and having an old, seemingly stale core with an unproven goalie. The Penguins needed a coaching change to right the ship early. And yeah they were written off after the Malkin injury, it's taken a while to realize the Pens actually have depth this year unlike the prior few.

 

[MadDevil]

US World Cup roster...

Forwards

Abdelkader
Backes
Callahan
Dubinsky
Kane
Kesler
Oshie
Pacioretty
Parise
Pavelski
Stepan
JVR
Wheeler

Defense

Byfuglien
Carlson
E. Johnson
J. Johnson
McDonagh
Niskanen
Suter

Goalies

Bishop
Quick
Schneider

 

[Brodeur]

Jack Johnson sticks out a little bit, but I suppose the US isn't as deep on the left side. Fowler/Orpik made the Olympic team, while others might prefer Yandle. It's too bad Andy Greene doesn't get more consideration, but he can save his energy for the regular season.

(And there's probably a joke to be had about wanting to give Jack Johnson a token paycheck after his parents bankrupted him)

 

[New Jersey Devils]

What a joke. Abdelkader, Dubinsky, Callahan, and Kesler shouldn't have made it over guys like Kessel and Palms.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

What a joke. Abdelkader, Dubinsky, Callahan, and Kesler shouldn't have made it over guys like Kessel and Palms.

USA Hockey likes to sabotage itself. I bet the US doesn't medal again.

 

[Brodeur]

Kesler a staple if only because the US isn't as deep at center. You'll need a Kesler to do some of the heavy lifting PK/shutdown. Palmieri more or less was passed over for Oshie who might get the edge for being the shootout specialist.

Rough outline of the roster:

Pacioretty-Pavelski-Kane
Parise-Stepan-Wheeler
JVR-Kesler-Oshie
Abdelkader-Backes-Callahan
Dubinsky

Edit: I forgot about Tyler Johnson. I would have put him there before Callahan and pushed Backes to wing.

Pacioretty-Pavelski-Kane
Parise-Stepan-Wheeler
JVR-Johnson-Oshie
Abdelkader-Kesler-Backes
Dubinsky

 

[Emperoreddy]

No Greene. Not shocked. Cory should be the starter over Quick and Bishop IMO.

 

[Brodeur]

I imagine they'll each get a game in the round robin, although I'd venture a guess that Quick gets first crack at Canada.

 

[Bleedred]

Is the GM once again David "best damn GM in the league for 35 years with not one cup" Poile again?

This is no surprise. The only reason he would even get a job is because he's miraculously the only GM in this league to be pretty much working nonstop as a GM since 1982.

Not even sure why he's relevant at all.